How one year in Braves’ system altered Charlie Morton’s career
The future of Charlie Morton’s career hung in the balance.
The Braves had relegated the 23-year-old pitching prospect to the Class high-A bullpen at the end of the 2006 season. He pitched terribly, compiling an ERA of over five for the second straight year.
Before leaving spring training in 2007, Atlanta’s minor league decision makers gathered for a staff meeting. A consensus was reached: Morton would return to Myrtle Beach, his fourth straight year in Class low-A or high-A.
That was when Derek Botelho, pitching coach for the Double-A Mississippi Braves, raised his hand and spoke up.
“Well, listen, we all know what Charlie has,” Botelho said in 2007, recalling the conversation in an interview. “I mean, this guy’s one hell of a prospect. I don’t think he should go to A ball for his fourth straight year. Get him out of that atmosphere. He needs to get to Double A.”
“What if we lose him?” responded Kent Willis, the Braves’ minor league pitching coordinator.
“Kent, you’re turning him back to A ball for his fourth year. Come on. We’ve got to move with him,” Botelho said.
“Bo, it’s a done deal,” said Kurt Kemp, Atlanta’s director of player development. “Charlie Morton is going to Double A.”
Since then, Morton has reached the majors, been traded twice, won a World Series and returned to the team that developed him. The Braves signed him in November to a one-year, $15 million contract more than 10 years after trading him and two other players to the Pirates for Nate McLouth. The 37-year-old right hander will provide much-needed experience in Atlanta’s young rotation.
If it weren’t for the summer of 2007 in Mississippi, Morton’s career might not have been the same. A conversation with Botelho changed his mindset on pitching, Morton told FanGraphs in 2017.
Morton had solid stuff but lacked maturity. Before traveling to the Arizona Fall League together, Botelho pulled Morton aside and told him he had to grow up.
Command and mechanics wouldn’t keep him from the big leagues. His professionalism might.
“From then on… a light switch went on and I started to be a professional,” Morton said. “I became more serious about the game, and with that I became harder on myself.”
Growing up in the Braves system
The Braves picked Morton in the third round of the 2002 draft from a Connecticut high school. As with most high school prospects, Morton wasn’t ready to handle failure.
Clint Sammons caught most of Morton’s games from 2005–08. His talent and calm demeanor were clear from the beginning, Sammons said. But Morton lacked big-game experience.
“As a young kid, you’re always the best. You’re the best on your team, you’re the best on pretty much everything you play,” Sammons said. “And all of the sudden you get into a league where everybody was the best on our team. And so you’re going to have failures.
“For him, the raw stuff was always there. It was just, was he ever going to piece it together? And you knew that if he did and figured it out the runway for him was so, so long. Obviously he’s proven that time and time again.”
Sammons, like Botelho, believes that 2007 marked the turning point in Morton’s development. Morton refined his slider that year; he already had a plus fastball, changeup and curveball. His ERA improved to 4.29 in almost 80 innings, most of which were in relief to preserve his arm.
Morton, Sammons and Botelho then headed to Peroria, Arizona, for the fall season. Morton transitioned to a starting role and handled the competition with ease. In 21 innings, he had a 2.57 ERA and 20 strikeouts.
Braves manager Bobby Cox, pitching coach Roger McDowell and general manager Frank Wren came to watch him pitch, and they were impressed enough to put him on the 40-man roster. Less than a year later, Morton made his major league debut in a win over the Angels.
Botelho still had one more lesson to teach. Reunited in 2009 with his coach in Triple-A Gwinnett, Morton faced off against future star Clay Bucholtz in an early May game.
Morton was masterful. He struck out 10 and allowed two hits in seven innings. Late in the game, however, Morton failed to catch a fly ball that landed on the mound. He expected a teammate to catch it. Gwinnett lost 1–0 as a result. Livid, Botelho didn’t speak to him until a few days later.
“I said, ‘You’ll remember that, Charlie. Remember this. Mark this down,’” said Botelho, who retired from coaching in 2016. “And I think to this day when I watch him … any ball that’s hit around the mound, he takes control until (an infielder) runs him off.”
Aging backwards
Morton spent seven seasons in Pittsburgh and one in Philadelphia after the trade for McLouth in June 2009. He never had more than one Win Above Replacement.
Morton changed his arm slot and workout routine, but injuries hindered any progress. He had Tommy John surgery in 2012, hip operations in 2012 and 2015 and hamstring issues in 2016.
Morton’s career resurgence started in 2017, his first season with the Houston Astros. He threw less sinkers and more fastballs. His four-seam use increased from less than 5% to over 20% in two years with Houston, according to Brooks Baseball.
In 2017, he had a career-high Wins Above Replacement (2.0) and a career-high strikeouts per nine innings (10). The Astros beat the Dodgers in the World Series after Morton retired the final 11 batters to clinch Game 7.
“I remember nights where maybe he couldn’t get out of the first inning,” Sammons said of Morton. “And now here he is, making a World Series team look like a Little League team, which is pretty neat.”
Morton improved his WAR and strikeouts per nine innings again in 2018. Then he joined the Tampa Bay Rays. He had another career year, finishing third in the American League Cy Young Award behind Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole.
Now with the Braves, Morton will reunite with one of his former catchers, Sal Fasano. Morton and Fasano were both on the Richmond Braves in 2008. At the time, Morton was struggling with constant comparisons to Roy Halladay, Fasano said. Eventually, Morton developed his own identity.
“Everybody was trying to clone him to be Roy Halladay when he’s actually Charlie Morton,” Fasano said. “And that’s the advice that you want to give guys: you have to be yourself. It’s hard to do anything in life if you don’t have your own identity. You can’t live in somebody’s shadow.”
When Morton signed with the Braves, Botelho welcomed him back with a congratulatory text. Morton responded immediately.
“Thanks for everything, Bo.”